SEO vs PPC

SEO organic vs PPC [ technology quest post ]

Are you familiar with such terms as SEO and PPC? * a Long Distance Run …

Do you know the key differences between them? Awesome if you do! However, the lion’s share of website owners and marketers make mistakes when choosing between SEO and PPC. Actually, the necessity of a choice is the first mistake … But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. In this paper, Brian Jens, uncovers these two concepts, defining the main similarities and differences. Use the essential tips below to build your promotion strategy much more effective.

#1 Cost

One of the most significant differences between SEO and PPC is the cost per click. Like it or not, but the CPC by the same request from the search and the contextual ad will differ at times (naturally, not in favor of PPC). The difference in the price of a click starts from 2–3 times and may reach 20 times and more. Сontext advertising is always more expensive. If you have the opposite situation, it means something is wrong with your strategy. Check and adjust it.

#2 Inertia

If you run out of funds, the PPC campaign immediately stops. As for SEO, the results are visible only after the next indexation. Thus, PPC has almost no inertia comparing to SEO.

#3 The Emergence of Visible Results

The result of PPC campaign can be seen almost a minute after the launch. In SEO, the result may appear unexpectedly (for example, after the re-calculation of PR by Google). SEO is a pretty hard work, the results of which can’t be seen not once.

The effect of PPC appears almost immediately while SEO brings visible results only after a few months. However, the effects of SEO last much longer.

#4 Social Media * natural SEO

#5 Possibility to Forecast Future Results

The effect of PPC can be predicted even before the launch of the campaign while SEO is almost unpredictable.

#6 Management

You can stop the PPC campaign or change ads whenever you want. In SEO, you don’t have such an opportunity. PPC provides more options of operational response.

#7 Setup and Keywords

In PPC, you can adjust geo-targeting while SEO has only a conditional geo-targeting. Thus, by the means of SEO, you may get a large number of inappropriate requests. In PPC, you pay for each user who came to your website by the ads. In SEO, the keywords should be the same as the users’ requests. In PPC model, the accuracy of keywords is achieved not by changing the forms of words but by manipulating the commands for clarification the requests. Short-time requests are unsuitable for SEO.

In addition, you have to take into account the local factor. Sometimes, it may be impossible to promote the website by geotargeted keywords in the regions without the company’s offices. In PPC, there is always a possibility to enable or disable the search query, the region, as well as change the text for a given keyword. PPC is much more flexible and the only tool suitable for advertising of special promotions and “one-day” activities.

SEO implies considering the competition by keywords. There’s no sense to promote a young narrowly-focused website like, for example, this one, by high-frequency keywords. The subject of the promoted website is important as well since not all subjects are equal in terms of promotion difficultness. The PPC’s only requirement is a relevance of advertising text with a keyword to the actual content of the website.

#8 Monitoring

PPC advertising requires constant attention and work on prices while SEO requires more strategic work. SEO is a Long Distance Run. SEO is a set of specific actions aimed at promoting your website in search engines. As you understand, SEO is not about promoting your website in one or a few days. The worst mistake is the rejection of your own SEO strategy in the middle of the road. Finish what you start, applying some adjustments if necessary.

You have to account many factors, including the age of the website, the level of competition, etc. In addition to these fundamental factors, there are a lot of minor ones like timeframes of the SEO project (long-term or short-term). Note that it takes about a month to index your website. But even this is not the end. After the first indexation, your website will be re-indexed once again after a few weeks. As a rule, to assess the return on SEO, you need to wait at least six months after the introduction.

SEO and PPC are Not Interchangeable but Complementary Tools

Proper SEO can significantly improve internal indicators of a website, as well as give it additional targeted traffic for low-frequency keywords. PPC can always be turned on and off when necessary. In addition, properly combined SEO and PPC advertising gives better results in terms of branding, when the user sees the website in search results and advertisements blocks.

A Part of PPC budget Should Always Go for the Testing of New Sources

Even when everything is set up and works fine, don’t stop to test. Don’t let the fact some money may be spent in vein stop you. The knowledge of effective and ineffective sources is also the result. Be sure to test new tools, hypothesis, and strategies.

To Sum Up

SEO and PPC are the main sources of traffic for any modern Internet project. However, one can’t say which is better. It all depends on your business features, goals, and chosen indicators of success.

Bio:

Brian Jens is a logo designer from Design Contest. He’s more than just a blogger. Brian is an open-minded generalist who constantly researches new markets. Thus, he’s able to cover a variety of topics. Send your best suggestions and get a fast response.